As the title would suggest; the debut album from The Silent Committee, ‘The Missing’ is now available on a multitude of streaming services and storefronts!
If you feel like setting a TikTok or Instagram reel to these strange electronic/ambient tunes then they should be available on there too! (I’d love to see what they end up soundtracking)
This will be the remastered audio and extremely expanded version (more than twice the length of the original release).
A reminder that the Bandcamp page is still THE place to buy it from as it is the most affordable and is formatted in the way CF intended it to be seen. The bandcamp pages for each song also include write ups about the inspiration and instrumentation.
Hope you’re enjoy the recent run of [4D]Recordings releases and rereleases.
As a spoiler of sorts, there is at least one more definite NEW release coming later this year. Keep yer eyes peeled and hit the subscribe button for the newsletter or follow the Instagram.
The debut album from The Silent Committee has now been fully remastered for better audio quality.
The reissue also boasts an additional SIXTEEN songs on top of the original release.
It is available to buy/stream on Bandcamp (best price! hint, hint. It’s also Friday!)
It will also soon be available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube etc. and to purchase from the usual digital storefronts. (Expected 18/08/2023)
Chris Fordham writes of the reissue:
The debut album by The Silent Committee was first released in 2008. I had only just begun to make recorded music at home and the mixes and quality of sound in these songs demonstrates some of that youthful naivety and creative fun. I didn’t own a music interface of any kind, just a cheap four channel mixer and the microphone socket leading into a £5 primitive DAW software. It certainly started a fair run of producing instrumental music and meeting lots of like-minded musicians online. I think as I set about the original recording I was listening to so much ambient and minimalist music that I sought to emulate it as best I could. Inspiration from the likes of Brian Eno, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Sigur Ros and Nine Inch Nails are obviously all here and I could only hope to have distantly reached at brushing the quality of those performers.
The original files for the songs are LONG gone so a full remix of the album is sadly not possible, but what I could do was revise the final mastering. More access to mastering software and hardware has resulted in this! The speakers no longer pop and hiss, hi-hats don’t pierce your eardrums and things generally sound a little more rounded.
The rolig. ep that preceded the album launch was merely a collection of live guitar loops and soundscapes; I’ve bundled them into the re-release, again with similar remastering touches to the main album. There are a few unheard things and other polished up sound experiments from the time included here to complete a document of what was happening with me musically in ’08. This is how a ten track album, becomes twenty-six on the remaster!
It was fun to revisit and I believe it’s certainly wise to retrace your steps to where you come from and think about where it’s led.
*If you visit each songs link separately on the bandcamp album page, I offer a little insight into instruments, techniques, influences and background to each song in turn.
CF 24/06/2023
1.
Theme for The Missing 01:31
2.
Finale 02:26
3.
Reminisce 02:45
4.
Vio 03:04
5.
Low 04:20
6.
Portrait Of A Girl In Glass 02:53
7.
Melancholy March 04:27
8.
Outside 02:41
9.
Fainter 02:40
10.
The Last High 02:43
11.
hæglátur (rolig ep) 03:00
12.
vielä (rolig ep) 02:00
13.
kyrrð (rolig ep) 03:00
14.
linişte (rolig ep) 03:00
15.
安生 (rolig ep) 01:00
16.
A Vespers Lullaby 02:43
17.
Elegy 04:52
18.
Heroes Lament 04:08
19.
Morning Haze/Breaking Hearts and Shattered Dreams (4-track demo) 05:40
The Silent Committee released the debut album ‘The Missing’ on August 3rd 2008. Back then it was available using a PayPal link to MySpace that afforded either the purchase of a home made CD-R package or the mp3 and image files sent over mediafire…Things have definitely improved.
The debut album was removed from Bandcamp at the end of June as it has now been completely remastered and MASSIVELY expanded. More news on that on Friday (when it is re-released, improved and better than ever.)
Whilst digging around for content I stumbled across my old vimeo account and was delighted to find the viral video clip I’d made to promote the album. It’s mysterious to the extent that if you hadn’t stumbled across the project already…you’d have no idea what it was about. Ambition was high back in 2008.
Check back on Friday for details of the reissue. If you are wanting to keep up with newer video work then please follow the vimeo account, or subscribe to the mailing list on here as I’ll always share the content to both sites.
It has now, at long last, been delivered to streaming platforms (Spotify/Youtube/Apple/Tidal) and digital storefronts to hopefully reach a new and wider audience. As always, the Bandcamp website provides the most affordable option of purchase (FREE! in this case, although if you feel like donating £1 I’d be extremely grateful, it helps me keep making music.)
This album is still one I’m very proud of over a decade later. I poured my heart into its making and tried to create a story in the changing mood of the record. The title and opening track is a slow, full, meditative thing that then leads into a more stark and harsh rushing beat and descent over the next few tracks. Towards the close it all becomes a bit more hopeful and alive. I talk about it a little more in this interview clip from ‘BBC Radio Northampton’s: Weekender Introducing’ programme from the time.
A few details about the album recording and promotion
A bit like the debut album, I was still very much learning the craft of home recording and as such, some of the sounds are a little strangely mixed by todays standards. Again, like 2008’s ‘The Missing’, the album is comprised of 4-track cassette tape recordings, dictaphone microphones, mic’d laptop speakers and digital manipulation. The netlabel community I became involved with and the musicians I met and worked with as a result of this release, are something very important to my musical development.
The album didn’t have any artwork until the day before release. I was a uni student and lived opposite an arts and crafts shop, so I crossed the road, bought a canvas and a bunch of watercolour and oil paints. I am not a painter. The version of the artwork that appears on the original releases cover is a macro photograph of the canvas taken whilst the paint was still wet…the canvas still hangs above the piano in our kitchen to this day.
‘Staring At The Sea’ as a title was simultaneously a reference to ‘The Great Below’ by Nine Inch Nails, and was also a nod to the greatest hits album by The Cure, ‘Standing On The Beach,’ an LP I had on constant repeat. The seas themselves are also amazing, if a little overused, metaphor/similie/allegory that you can get lost in. Visits to the coast also inspire me greatly as I look out across the water and often photograph the waves.
‘Staring At The Sea’ the song, was also the 1st song performed live as The Silent Committee. It was the only album track played at all three shows to date and would almost certainly feature in the future if I’m ever invited to play this music live again.
Anyway, I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting the record with me.
Things were different back in 2010. Whilst there were no synthesisers in the studio, there was an enormous harmonium purchased for £12 from a junk shop around the corner.
Here is a rough and ready performance of the song ‘The Last High’ performed in the attic. This song was the closing track from the 2010 album ‘Staring At The Sea’ by The Silent Committee. That album is available in full on bandcamp now, and is also due to arrive on streaming platforms mid-July. The video below was filmed and assembled by Nigel Fordham.
This vimeo channel is no longer active but I’m leaving the content there.
Here’s the 1st item from the archive. 13 years ago yesterday The Silent Committee project left the studio and took to a stage for the first time. One musician armed with a mixer, loop pedal, keyboard, guitar, drums and percussion performed a five song set at The Fishmarket Art Gallery in Northampton as part of an exhibition evening.
Feel free to explore the discography and linkspages at the top of the website to listen to sounds from each of the current projects released out into the world.
The Silent Committee is an instrumental project that revolves around manipulation of acoustic and electric instruments. The songs produced are typically minimalist and ambient in nature and as time has gone on have become more complex. It started life as experimentation with 4-track cassette demos and grew into full studio production and even live performance. To date there are three full length albums and a number of EPs, singles and soundtracks under the name.
Violet’s Gone is the more typical singer songrwiter sound and quite far removed from the instrumental projects. Chris Fordham started his musical exploration as a rhythm guitarist and a bassist in pub bands, lurking around open mic nights. Having learnt a decent roster of cover songs he set out to write his own songs inspired by the artists he listened too in his teen years and beyond. Expect songs based around piano and guitar in the main; some experimental leanings, but a lot of these you can sing along with. This project is two albums and one EP in, so far.
[Pyxis]
Starting out in 2023 after a short break from releasing new music in earnest, [Pyxis] is a new project that sought to shake things up for Chris and get him making tunes again. Gone are complicated rhythm and time signature swaps, in are electronic sounds with drone backing, ambiance, noise and drum loops. Something new and we hope you enjoy. The debut album from this project lands in July 2023.
Finally, there is the music released just under the musicians real name. This is where it all started back in 2004…he’s tried my best to remove traces of the real early stuff from the face of the Earth but some of it still stands up. Chris was associated with a netlabel in the 2010’s called BFW Recordings (sadly no longer active) and produced some songs that still stand up as some of his best; even when the recording techniques afforded were minimal. At some point in the near future we will collate and remix/master the recordings of this era to give them a new lease of life. Aside from those projects there are a selection of classical songs scored for quartet or bigger that NEED recording properly and will hopefully one day, happen.
Other Projects
Chris has appeared in a number of bands and recording projects over the years. Most notably are his long term involvement in Northampton bands Enki and The Snakeman 3. Both approached different brands of psychadelic and garage rock very different to his own solo projects and definitely shaped his musical outlook. Chris was also a member of the touring band for To Bury A Ghost in promotion of the EP The Hurt Kingdom and still maintains contact, a listening ear and occasional instrument to Jons new projects. Check out the bio page at the top menu to see an extensive list of all Chris’s other project appearances, live and studio.
Chris Fordham Music 